Management and Enforcement

Under international law, the high seas areas beyond 200 nautical miles from the coast are open to all. The 1982 UN Law of the Sea Convention envisages six basic high seas freedoms for all states: navigation; overflight; freedom to lay submarine cables and pipelines; to construct artificial islands and other installations; freedom of fishing and of scientific research. Although the Convention does impose important duties (notably environmental protection) on those that exercise these freedoms, it is other sectoral treaty regimes that regulate a range of specific issues such as fishing, wildlife protection, shipping, and seabed mining.

The general strategy of the Sargasso Sea Commission is therefore to identify the most important threats to the Sargasso Sea ecosystem and to address these by seeking appropriate protection measures within the relevant existing international or regional sectoral organization. Possible threats from shipping or vessel source pollution would be addressed through the International Maritime Organization (IMO); threats from fishing through the only two relevant fishing organizations – the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) and (for the small area of the Sargasso sea above 35°N) the North-west Atlantic Fisheries Organization (NAFO); Seabed mining issues through the International Seabed Authority (ISA).

More information on these organizations, and how the Sargasso Sea Commission has worked through them, can be found below.